I was born in Europe, and still view myself as genetically Polish. ("After bad is only worse"). That said, after coming to Australia as a child of refugee parents, I never returned as a young person or a nascent adult. I wonder what that was? Some deeply ingrained freeze state probably. A sense that I wasn't entitled to spend holiday money.
I went, in the end, at age 42. Allowed myself the trip by attaching it to something I did allow myself: affection. Shuffled around the continent. Saw some things. Met my three siblings for the first time. What a strange experience, seeing oneself through the similar actions of people that share the same DNA, even after thirty-plus years apart. Even after never having previously met. Like witnessing another addict's behaviour in some twelve step program and recognising your own foibles.
Anyway, Europe: Berlin, Modena, Venice, Fontanaluccia, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and various parts of Poland.
I went, in the end, at age 42. Allowed myself the trip by attaching it to something I did allow myself: affection. Shuffled around the continent. Saw some things. Met my three siblings for the first time. What a strange experience, seeing oneself through the similar actions of people that share the same DNA, even after thirty-plus years apart. Even after never having previously met. Like witnessing another addict's behaviour in some twelve step program and recognising your own foibles.
Anyway, Europe: Berlin, Modena, Venice, Fontanaluccia, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and various parts of Poland.
